In the last 16 months of 12-year-old Gavin Peterson’s life, those who knew him tried to raise an alarm.
One called the Utah Division of Child and Family Services on March 28, 2023, to report suspected neglect. Then another call came two days later. Investigators opened a case — at least the third they opened in four years, the division said. They interviewed Gavin, talked to his father and visited his father’s home.
On May 8, 2023, while the case remained open, DCFS received another abuse report, prompting a second home visit and more interviews — with Gavin, his father and other adults.
The same day, caseworkers closed the investigation, classifying it as “unsupported.”
DCFS didn’t hear any more about Gavin until July 9, 2024, when child welfare workers learned he was in the hospital, suffering from the effects of long-term malnourishment. He died that day.
The agency’s director, Tonya Myrup, acknowledged this month that the boy fell off caseworkers’ radar when he was removed from school in August 2023. This, despite a case history that dated back to his infancy.
Gavin’s disappearance from the public eye represents a “unique” and “small subset” of abuse and neglect cases, Myrup said — where parents “go to extreme efforts to avoid DCFS and to avoid public intervention.”
But when it happens, she said, Utah has no protocols in place to check on children.
It’s something the child welfare agency is looking to change.
‘More children are falling through the cracks’
Samantha Field, with the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, said the nonprofit that advocates for homeschooled children has analyzed information that — unlike Myrup’s conclusion — indicates cases like Gavin’s are somewhat common.
She pointed to data from Michigan, Kentucky, Connecticut and Oklahoma that shows when a child is withdrawn from school, about a third of the time, the move comes after a report of child abuse that led to the opening of a child welfare case.
“Every conversation I’ve ever had with a caseworker cites homeschool law as a common ‘get out of jail card’ abusers play,” said Field, the nonprofit’s government relations director.
Gavin’s father, stepmother and older brother were all charged with reckless child abuse homicide in connection with his death. Shane Peterson, Nichole Scott and Tyler Peterson, respectively, remain held without bail in Weber County Jail as the case is prosecuted.
Field’s group works to suggest policy they think could make a difference for at-risk children, like Gavin. The nonprofit’s members were all once homeschooled themselves.
Since isolation is “one of the most significant risk factors in the presence, severity, and escalation of abuse,” she said, the group supports an enrollment system for homeschooled students, so there is a record of them.
In Utah, parents are required to complete an affidavit of their intent to homeschool. The state’s new voucher program also offers $8,000 scholarships to parents and families interested in homeschooling or private school.
Like Myrup suggested, the nonprofit believes homeschooled children with histories of parental abuse should be “flagged” for intervention or additional monitoring by a mandatory reporter, and that these children’s wellbeing should be assessed annually.
“More children are falling through the cracks than ever,” Fields said.
They also support legislation that bars homeschooling parents convicted of any offense that would make them unfit to be a teacher also be considered unfit to homeschool. Utah has a similar requirement in its homeschooling affidavit, which asks parents to affirm that they have never been convicted of child abuse, Fields said, but there are no mechanisms to follow-up with a parents’ claims.
Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, said at a Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel meeting Oct. 10 that she intends to sponsor a bill next year that would allow caseworkers to seek welfare-check warrants in situations like Gavin’s — where a child with a case history has been isolated. She did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s requests for additional comment.
Other lawmakers, like Rep. Cheryl Acton, R-West Jordan, suggested allowing caseworkers to make more unannounced visits to homes; instituting more training for rural doctors and newer caseworkers to recognize signs of abuse; and offering transportation services for rural families to attend counseling after-hours, when facilities near them have closed.
A ‘broken’ system, one parent says
(Fox 13 News) Kevin Franke speaks at a Child Welfare Legislative Oversight Panel meeting Oct. 10, where he called for a system-wide investigation into the Utah Division of Child and Family Services as well as reform.
The panel meeting Oct. 10 also included lengthy statements from parents, guardians and advocates who said they have witnessed shortcomings in Utah’s child welfare system and demand change.
Kevin Franke, whose own children suffered abuse when they were separated from him and living with their mother in Ivins, called for a system-wide investigation and reform.
Over the past year, he told the panel, he has seen both sides of DCFS. It is staffed with “good people who genuinely care.” It also has too few employees who he said make too little in wages and are “discouraged by the overwhelming numbers of cases they are asked to investigate or manage.”
He called the state’s child welfare system “broken,” because it seems to value the “rights of abusive parents above the rights, safety and wellbeing of their children.”
“It failed Gavin Peterson,” he said, “and it failed my children in their time of greatest need. Please act now.”
Franke also advocated for “red flag laws” that would give authorities the power to intervene “rapidly,” which could “overcome the impenetrable barrier of the ‘uncooperative parent.’”
Such laws could have helped Peterson, he said.
“And I tremble when I think that my own children were just weeks away from meeting the same fate,” he added.
‘We do not claim that homeschooling is abusive’
When Gov. Spencer Cox was asked about Gavin’s case at his monthly news conference in September, he conceded that DCFS was facing staffing shortages and said the Legislature has worked to increase pay to help retain caseworkers.
But when a Tribune reporter asked about additional oversight for at-risk children who are homeschooled, he said such checkpoints were not warranted and that he was “offended” by the question.
“We’re never going to have government big enough to be living in people’s houses to be able to prevent all of this. That’s just not how it works, and it can’t work that way,” Cox said. “The people who are accountable for this are the people who abused this child, and I hope they rot in hell.”
“They are the people responsible,” he continued. “It’s not the government going into everyone’s home. … That’s a ridiculous assertion, but we will do everything we can to prevent this from happening when those cases are reported to us, but I’m just deeply offended by the question.”
The Tribune reached out to Cox’s spokespeople for clarification on his remarks. They did not provide additional comments.
Field said her group sometimes receives pushback from people who “seem to think that when we’re discussing homeschool policy, we’re discussing the idealized form of a homeschool parent they’re imagining, or know personally.”
The group has reviewed limited data that indicates homeschooling parents are not any less likely to abuse their children, she said. Data also shows that isolation is a significant risk factor for abuse.
When homeschooling is introduced to an already abusive situation, “the abuse can worsen and become more lethal, because there are no guardrails in place,” she said.
“We do not claim that homeschooling is abusive, or homeschooling makes people abusive,” Fields said. “We just don’t believe that homeschooling exempts anyone from being abusive, and it allows abusers to isolate victims.”
The consequences of not instating policy to better protect kids, she said, is that more kids die.
Editor’s note • If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, reports can be made to the Utah Division of Child and Family Services by calling 1-855-323-3237 or visiting dcfs.utah.gov/child-abuse-reporting-form.
